This blog is meant to display my coins/currency notes/stamps, in an informative manner, which would be useful to users in knowing about the history of the period when these coins/banknotes/stamps were minted/printed and events/persons they honour/depict, both on Indian and foreign coins/banknotes/stamps. The content would be more in the nature of a walk down memory lane through my collection/articles.

The District level Philatelic Exhibition – DEOPEX
2016 – was held on 18-19 March 2016 at Deoghar, Jharkhand organised by
the Jharkhand Circle of the Department of Posts, India.

This Philatelic Exhibition organised various
Philately related competitions for school children like essays, Quiz, Painting
and Dance and showcased various Philatelic products, including two newly
released Special Covers one of which is the undernoted Special Cover on Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose’s visits to Jharkhand (released on 18.03.2016) and
the other one was on Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the great Indian social
reformer (also released on 18.03.2016):

An image of the Front of the Special
Cover released at DEOPEX-2016.

It shows a collage of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
seated in a chair with a book in his right hand, a statue (memorial) of
Vidyasagar in Deoghar two stamps released on him by India Post at various
points of time and a school with his statue in front. Below the collage is
mentioned “Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar – Ek Mahaan Sudharak” (in Hindi) and “Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar – A Great Reformer” (in English). The Rs.5/- stamp is from
the set of four stamps released under the title “Women’s Empowerment” and
depicts the achievements of women in outer space and going to study/work on a
bicycle while a group of young girls look on, aspiring to make their own
successful careers. The Cancellation Stamp is inscribed “Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar, Ek Mahaan Sudharak” (in Hindi) and “Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, A
Great Reformer” (in English). There is also an image of the Hooghly River bridge. In the centre is mentioned “DEOPEX 2016” (both in
Hindi and English). Also, there is the image of a boy studying in the light of
a street lamp, just as Ishwar Chandra used to do. The Cancellation is of B.
Deoghar and is dated 18.03.2016”

The Back of the Special Cover
shows the India post logo on the left hand top corner and the logo of DEOPEX
2016 on the right hand top corner. The name of the issuing authority Chief
Postmaster general, Jharkhand Circle, Ranchi appears on the top half, along
with the approval serial number JH/06/2016.

A brief about Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar appears bin
the lower half of this face of the envelope:

“Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya was born on 26th
September 1820 in a village called Veersingha of then Hoogley. The title “Vidyasagar”
(Ocean of Knowledge” was given to him due to his vast knowledge. He was a great
social reformer, writer, educator, entrepreneur, and worked endlessly to
transform society. His contribution towards education and changing the status
of women and initiation of the concept of widow remarriage, abolition of child
marriage and polygamy in India was remarkable.

Jharkhand has the rare privilege that he chose
Karmatar (Near Madhupur) to live the last 18 years of his life. “Nandan Kanan”
was the name of his abode at Karmatar (Jamtara district). He tried to uplift
the social structure of tribals. He started possibly the first girls school of
our country for tribals. The house of Vidyasagar at Nandan Kanan has been still
maintained in the original shape.”

Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar (26.09.1820-29.07.1890):

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was
a Bengali polymath and a key figure in Bengali Renaissance. He was a
philosopher, academic, educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher,
entrepreneur, reformer and philanthropist.

Birth
and education:

He was born Ishwar Chandra
Bandopadhyay (or “Ishshor Chondro
Bondopaddhae” in Bengali), in Birsingha village of Midnapore district, in
the Indian State of West Bengal. His parents were very religious, but their
economic condition was not stable and his childhood was spent in abject
poverty.

In 1828, after the
completion of his elementary education at the village school, his father took
him to Calcutta (present day Kolkata) to seek admission in an English language
institution. As they could not afford the transport fare, they walked all the
way to Calcutta.

Ishwar
Chandra was so bright that he learned the English numerals by reading the
mile-stones on his way to Calcutta at the young age of eight years.

In Calcutta, again they
faced financial hardship and he could not get admitted to the Hindu College
because the fees was too high, therefore, Ishwar Chandra was admitted to the
Sanskrit College.

He
was a brilliant student and his quest for knowledge was so intense that he used
to study under the street lights as he could not afford to buy a gas lamp at
home.

He cleared all the
examinations with excellent marks, earning several scholarships for his
outstanding academic performance.

To support the family and
his studies, he took a part-time teaching job at Jorashanko.

In 1839, he
successfully passed his Law examination.

In 1841, he joined
Fort William College as Head of the Sanskrit Department.

In 1846, he left
Fort William College and took up an assignment at Sanskrit College as
“Assistant Secretary”. In his first year of service he recommended several
changes to the existing education system which resulted in differences of
opinion with the Secretary of the College, leading to his leaving the Sanskrit
College and rejoining Fort William College as a Head Clerk.

In 1849, he again
joined Sanskrit College as a Professor of Literature.

In 1851, he became
Principal of Sanskrit College.

In 1855, he was
made Special Inspector of Schools with additional charges.

His
kindly disposition:

Having grown up in poverty
and deprivation, he always had a kindly disposition towards the poor and weak
persons lying on footpaths and streets and would spend a part of his
scholarship money and salary on the welfare of these persons and buying
medicines for the sick.

His
Reforms:

His Reforms can broadly be
classified under the following categories:

Widow
Remarriage and putting a stop to polygamy:

Widow
Remarriage:

His views on widow
remarriage were formed during his study period in Calcutta.

Once he visited a friend’s
home whose sister was a child widow. This was his first experience of the
hardships this custom imposed on women. Then, he saw his old Guru who got
married to a young girl. He was so enraged that he stopped visiting his Guru.
Within a year the Guru passed away leaving behind a child widow with no means
to support her.

He
resolved to devote his life to improve the status of Hindu widows and
encouraging widow remarriage. He became an impassioned supporter of female
education and an opponent of polygamy.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar,
thereafter, initiated the concept of widow remarriage and raised concern
for the abolition of child-marriage and polygamy.

He wrote at length
substantiating his views on these social issues and quoted extensively from the
scriptures and historical data. He
wrote that a decline in religion had created the environment that allowed
contemporary customs to thrive.

When he met with stiff
opposition on his reformist views he insisted that his opponents were
misquoting/misinterpreting the scriptures and employed a masterful command of
Sanskrit to expose their fallacious contentions.

In 1855, in his
first book on widow remarriage, he mentioned that the practice was permissible
in “Kalyug” (the Dark Age), the Age
in which he and his contemporaries lived. His
book sold 2,000 copies in the first week of its publication and two subsequent
reprints of 2,000 and 10,000 copies sold almost as quickly. His detractors
continued to insult and abuse him and even threatened him with death.

Nevertheless, he
steam-rolled all their objections and urged the British authorities to pass
legislation that would allow Hindu widows to remarry.

To support his request, he
collected 1,000 signatures and sent his petition to the Indian Legislative
Council. His detractors too collected thousands of signatures requesting the
Legislative Council not to entertain Ishwar Chandra’s petition.

The
Legislative Council decided to support the “enlightened” minority and the Hindu
Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856.

Efforts
to put a ban on polygamy:

Vidyasagar lived in Bengal
at a time when the males among the “Kulin”
Brahmins, an aristocratic caste with rigid marriage rules were highly sought
after as bridegrooms and could marry as many women as they wished.

When Vidyasagar collected
the data on the marriage records of 133 Kulin Brahmins of Hooghly district, the
malpractices of the polygamy system were thrown up and he became horrified with
the magnitude of the problem. One 50 year old man had been married 107 times,
while another at the age of 55 had 80 wives. Still another at the age of 64 had
72 wives and so on.

Vidyasagar sent a petition
signed by 2,500 persons to the Government against this inhuman custom of
polygamy. When, despite his vigorous efforts, no action was taken, ten years
later he presented another petition to the authorities signed by 21,000 persons
requesting a legislative prohibition of polygamy. Still, the Government cautious after India’s First War of
Independence in 1857, declined to act.

He
continued his campaign and kept writing against polygamy, but by 1873, the
issue was put in the cold storage.

Mass
Education:

His third campaign
was for the mass education for boys and girls. He had been appointed Special
Inspector of schools for the Districts of Hooghly, Midnapur, Burdman and Nadia in
1855 and was able to use his influence to establish a system of
vernacular education in Bengal, including forty schools for girls.

Earlier, in 1849, a
girl’s school was set up by J.E.D. Bethune, legal member of the Governor
General’s Council and it became Vidyasagar’s responsibility to guide it through
its difficult years. He remained associated with it till 1869.

He opened the doors of
colleges and educational institutions to lower caste students, which were
earlier accessible to the upper castes only. For his immense generosity he was
called “Daya Sagar” (meaning “Ocean
of Kindness”).

Modernising
Bengali Prose and rationalisation of the Bengali language:

His efforts to simplify
and modernise Bengali prose were significant and he also rationalised and
simplified the Bengali alphabet and type.

He reconstructed the
Bengali alphabet and reformed Bengali typography into an alphabet of twelve
vowels and forty consonants. He contributed significantly to Bengali and
Sanskrit literature.

His “Barna Porichay” is even today considered a classic. (I
remember that in 1997, when I was posted at State Bank of India, Lucknow
Local Head Office, one of my colleagues Mr.T.P. Sen got one copy of the “Barna Porichay” for me from Kolkata, so
that I would learn Bengali, as Sumita, my wife is a Bengali and to make it easy
for me he used to converse in Bengali with me).

Image of the "Barna Porichay"
book in my library showing a picture of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on its cover. He is depicted as the sun, with rays symbolising knowledge emanating from him and lightening up all students through education.

Some
of his works:

Some of the works authored
by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar include:

- Betaal
Panchabinsati (1847)

- Bangala-r
Itihaas (1848)

- Jeebancharit
(1850)

- Bodhadoy
(1851)

- Sanskrita
ByakarnerUpakramanika (1851)

- Rijupath
(Parts I, II & III – 1851-1852)

- Bidhaba
Bibaha Bishayak Prostab 216554

- Byakaran
Kaumudi (1853)

- Borno
Porichoy (1854)

- Kotha
mala (1856)

- Sitar
Bonobas (1860)

Donations
for Calcutta University:

With a view to set up a
University at Calcutta, he along with his friends travelled across Bengal and
neighbouring states asking people to donate for the foundation of the
University. The Nawab of a Princely State
on hearing Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s request took off one of his shoes and
dropped it in Vidyasagar’s bag as a donation. Vidyasagar thanked the
Nawab and left. The next day, he organised and auction of the Nawab’s shoe
which fetched Rs.1000/- . The Nawab on
hearing of this was so ashamed that he donated a similar amount of money for
the cause.

His
passing away and legacy:

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
spent the last 18 to 20 years of his life among the Santhals at “Nandan Kanan”, Karmatar, in District
Jamtara, Jharkhand.

He passed away on 29.07.1891
at the age of 70 years.

Despite
his efforts, widow remarriage never received the approval of society, polygamy
was not abolished and female education was in its infancy.

He personified the best
of the 19th Century social reformers arguing for social change
in the areas where customs adopted over the centuries had developed many social
maladies and were ripping the social fabric of humanity to shreds.

He
is considered to be one of the pillars of Bengal Renaissance. He continued the
Reforms movement started by Raja Rammohan Roy.

He was a well-known
writer, intellectual and a staunch believer of humanity. He was instrumental in
bringing about a revolution in education system of Bengal.

In his book, “Barno-Porichay” (meaning “Introduction
to the letter”), he refined the Bengali language and made it accessible to the
common strata of society.

The second Hooghly
River Bridge linking the city of Howrah to its twin city of Kolkata is
named after him and is called “Vidyasagar
Setu”.

A Fair named “Vidyasagar Mela” which is
dedicated to spreading education and increasing social awareness, is held
annually gin West Bengal since 1994. Now, since 2001, it is held
simultaneously in Kolkata and Birsingha.

A reputed College
is named after him which is located in College Street, Kolkata and a University
is named after him in Paschim Midnapore.

The Railway station at
Karmatar where he spent the last few years of his life is named “Vidyasagar
Railway station” in his honour.

In recognition of his
scholarship and cultural work, the government gave him the title of “Companion
of the Indian Empire (CIE)” in 1877.

In Central Kolkata, a
street is named after him.

A stadium at Barasat,
the District Centre of North 24 Parganas is called “Vidyasagar stadium” after
him.

The title “Vidyasagar” (meaning “Ocean of
Knowledge”) was given to him because of his vast knowledge on wide and
varied subjects.

Rabindranath
Tagore said of him “One wonders how God, in the process of producing forty
million Bengalis, produced a man!”

About Me

I am Rajeev Prasad, a retired State Bank of India officer who had been collecting coins in a shoe box without having a serious interest. Only after quitting my job I got the time to take serious interest in developing my coin collection into a hobby. A pity, because I would have had more opportunity to lay my hands on more 'exclusive coins' while in the Bank. Anyway, as they say,better late than never. If you have any views to share with me regarding this blog , please contact me on my email rajeevprasad1208@gmail.com. I also have a twitter account @prasad_rajeev.
I had an opportunity to participate in a Documentary on the life and times of the 25 paise coin titled “Chal Basi Chavanni” (The four anna/twenty five paise coin passes away), aired by STAR NEWS on 29th and 30th June 2011. The programme helped in making many persons hold back onto their “chavannis”, the little round beauties, instead of returning them to Banks .